The Gay Parenting Show #001
The Gay Parenting Show #001 (MP3 18.3 MB 52 min)
Thank you for visiting the Gay Parenting Show. I hope you’ll stay awhile, and listen to my first Podcast.
This week’s show has been a pleasure to produce. First, I got to tell you a little about myself and my family, and you got to hear my wonderful son Sasha’s voice. If you’d like to learn more about my family, and read my other writings for LGBT parents and their kids, be sure to visit my homepage at www.gayparentingpage.com.
I want to send a special thank you to my guests this week. Corri Planck of the Family Pride Coalition (www.familypride.org) visited to tell us about Family Week, their week of fun and celebration for gay families. It’s an amazing, empowering thing to see the streets of Provincetown, MA filled with hundred of gay families. If you possibly can, go. And look for my family there! Family Week runs from July 30th through August 5th.
I was also lucky to have some time with Arlene Istar Lev. Her terrific book, The Complete Lesbian and Gay Parenting Guide, is an incredibly comprehensive resource for those interested in becoming gay parents – or for those of us who’ve already taken the plunge. I urge you to check it out.
Next week, I hope to have more great interviews – with Judith Snow, author of How It Feels to Have a Gay or Lesbian Parent: A Book by Kids for Kids of All Ages
Before you go, please feel free to leave me some feedback. I’d love to know you’re out there – I certainly am!
Thanks again for visiting, and thanks also to The Podcast Network, for taking a gamble with this show.
Till next time,
Scott
July 16th, 2005 at 8:22 am
woohoo!
July 20th, 2005 at 12:42 am
Scott:
As a gay Dad I want to thank you for your efforts and continued support of LBGT families! Your radio show is exactly what we need.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!
July 20th, 2005 at 2:25 am
WOW!!!! I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this show. It touched me deeper than I can express right now. I will do my best.
I am a gay man, 46 years old, and wanted to be a father for most of my life. I lived in Columbus OH in the late 80s when a very upstanding gay man was turned down by the legal system to adopt the child he had been foster parenting with his partner. The child was African-American, with HIV (not expected to live long), and had other disabilities, the most difficult to place child. With this action, I remember being so depressed that I probably could never raise a child. It wasn’t until my mid-thrities that I met a social worker who said gays are adopting very much today (that was in the mid-90s). I had fallen in love with a man that was not interested in adopting, and I did not want to do this on my own.
Today, I have a new relationship with a man who is interested in the possibility of adopting. Listening to your program has renewed a spirit in me that I feel is almost primordial. I have had experiences with friends who have children and have had a close hand with some of them. I agree with the last person interviewed on the program (the social worker who wrote a book (I forget the name/s) when she said there is no work harder than the raising of a child. And, I will liken this unto exercise wherein, the more work you put in the greater you feel. Like exercise, only on the most complex of levels, the raising of a child will bring the greatest happiness life has to offer. Nothing is more challanging or more rewarding.
I don’t know that I have what it takes to be the parent I would want to be, but this program has opened my spirit to reconsidering this in ways that are making my life richer than I have imagined in a long time, even if I do not end up adopting.
I am so grateful to you and your program.
I hope there is enough interest to keep it going.
THANK YOU
July 21st, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Arlene Istar Lev was a wonderful guest. She was not only informative but entertaining. Her parenting advice was useful information for ALL parents. I am looking forward to your future podcasts and congratulations to the Podcast Network for making such diverse topics available to the public.
Keep up the good work!!!
July 22nd, 2005 at 11:17 am
Scott
Thanks so much for taking the time to voice to the world the wonderful journey that we as LGBT Parents or RainbowParents live and breathe. Families like ours deserve to be understood…
Like most, our family is traditional in many ways. Both parents work, one child in daycare, house cleaning, cartoons, yard work, good times, boo-boos, tears, runny noses, many toys, dinner, dishes, laundry, and the list goes on…
Our family consists of a darling four year old little girl and her two Daddies (Daddy and Dad). We have been together almost 13 years. Our family became complete with the adoption of Emma when she was 8 months old. Our journey to find Emma was several years in the making and the decision to adopt was not a faddish one. This journey took many paths before it was headed in the right direction. There were many mental stresses – not just the contemplation of whether we were ready individually and as a couple, but the federal, state and local security and health clearance issues. Can we afford not just the initial undertaking but the day-to-day costs – food, clothing, and the astronomical cost of daycare? What if our child had special needs or health concerns? Looking back, these were normal considerations that all soon-to-be families undergo. The most important aspect in any of these considerations was COMMITMENT…..and it still is today.
Our little girl’s mother, who lives in Vietnam, gave her a precious gift of a better life. We are often told she is a lucky little girl. We know we are the lucky ones to have the honor and privilege of Emma in our lives.
Quality-time together is one of the most important elements in our family. This is as simple as reading her a book, stopping what we are doing when she asks – whether it is to paint, go across the street to the park, bake cookies, dancing lessons, and her Dad’s favorite things…..going to the mall (which usually means riding the carousel, a smoothie, and shopping for her.)
We also have taken several trips and vacations together. Some include the beach, trips to Key West, Colorado Rockies, and the all time Magical Disney Adventure. These all have been very pleasurable.
This adventure that we have shared with our family – the planning of our family, the happiness of finding our daughter, the laughter, the tears, the trials and the tribulations – has led us to the creation of this web site. We want to provide a useful resource to Rainbow Parents and their Rainbow Families – families just like ours.
What exactly is a Rainbow Family? — A fundamental social group in society consisting of one or two parents and their child or children, who share goals and principles, and have commitments to one another and may reside in the same dwelling.
In a family, people learn the right behaviors, which are important for their lives. For example – love, trust, acceptance, patience, respect, taking care of other people and responsibility.
Quality time including regular recreational activities and family vacations help build the family unit. (Parks, zoos, museums, play-grounds, sports fields, travel, etc.)
Families are an important investment in the future of our society.
Families build up the most important thing for our society: HUMANITY.
We look forward to meeting your family next in Provincetown, Mass July 30 – August 6, 2005. This will be our first visit to P-town and Family Pride Coalition event.
YES – Keep up the GOOD WORK ! ! !
August 21st, 2005 at 7:24 am
Scott,
I just listened to your Podcast #5, and was impressed with your guest,
Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry. I work for a Fortune 100 company, a component of the Dow Jones index, that still does not provide domestic partner benefits. Even though I am a registered domestic partner in California, and have applied for benefits as such, my employer turned me down since it is their policy only to provide health and dental benefits to married employees. Since CA does not legally offer marriage rights to GLBT citizens this means my partner is excluded from the same benefits that my straight, married co-workers enjoy.
I was impressed by his suggestion of engaging our fair minded straight friends, and well as your point that being outed by your kids provides an opportunity for neighbors to see you as a caring, loving, and healthy family unit.
Keep up the good work !